| Marshall G.
S. Hodgson explores the brief period in medieval
history which he believes to be a fertile ground
for useful comparison between the Occidental and
Islamic institutions and cultures. Marshall considers
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as the period
during which the Western civilization was economically
and socially at par with the Islamic civilization,
any period before that would render the occidentals
culturally and economically backwards and any
period after would strike at the unusual period
of occidental florescence and the historic shift
away from an agrarian economy. In the Introduction
of the chapter Marshall provides his reasoning
for the importance of such a study, “Such
a comparison can suggest assessments of potentialities
in the two cultural sets as well as suggest long
term directions of movement in them, which may
help us understand why this or that seeming possibility
was not taken into account at this or that juncture.”
Marshall also indicates that while such comparisons
have been undertaken by many scholars, the comparisons
were superficial, invidious and self congratulatory
because they attempted to sort out ‘ecological
circumstances from the expressly cultural commitments
and cultural commitments that have contributed
to social patterns in particular ethnic groups
(local ruling classes, compact nations like Egypt,
and language blocs like Iranians)’.
The comparison begins by an illustration of the
prevailing ignorance to cultural, technological
and economical development of any kind in the
western Afro Eurasian Oikoumene society. Only
the privileged class practiced civilized culture
and they lived on the economic production of the
illiterate peasants. All institutions had the
primary objective of preserving what they knew
and attained, there was little motivation for
scientific or technological development. Professional
circles in art, craft, literature and theology
worked on the master-apprentice system with emphasis
on preservation of techniques and ideas. All this
changed during the thirteenth century, by force
of power and expansion a sort of cultural and
innovatory integration took place between the
Occident the Islamdom. The primary driving force
behind this change was the development and facilitation
of international trade by the Islamic empire.
Civilized life expanded in all directions and
the development of cities grew at an unprecedented
speed during the era.
Merchants from Malaysia to Sudan sold their merchandise
and ideas to other nations. There were many technological
developments during the era. Gun powder or ‘Greek
Fire’ was invented; compasses became common
on all vassals, and paper was being manufactured
in major cities of the world. In the Far East
and other regions books and other works were printed
on paper. “It was indeed; in part some of
the new discoveries that helped make it possible,
directly and indirectly, the expansion that had
taken place in the area of civilized interaction.
Islamdom shared at least as much as any other
society in the overall development.” The
most important development was the emergence of
philosophy and mysticism which would transform
the intellectual capacities of generations to
come. The wealth of intellectual knowledge during
the time did not just originate from Baghdad or
Cordova but emerged from all parts of the world.
The era saw the masterpiece works of contemporaries
like Al Ghazali and Thomas Aquinas, Ibn-e al Arabf,
Shankara and Ramajuna of India, Chi Hsi from China
and Michael Psellus from Europe. Marshall points
out that the intellectual development lead to
the maturing of traditions of personal experience
and institutions in all great Oikoumenic regions.
Perhaps one of the main points developed by author
relates to the misconception of western writers
regarding the cultural importance and dominance
of the Islamic centers of learning during the
Arab Caliphate. Some writers, Marshall argues,
have sidelined the significance of Islamic contribution
by stating that it was the Portuguese invasion
of the Indian Ocean brought the Muslims out of
isolation and into the mainstream of cultural
development. Marshall calls these notions ridiculous.
And, he also refutes the ideals of other western
writers who have stated that Baghdad and Cordova
was the incomparable centre of learning and the
Islamicate culture was the greatest in the world.
To these arguments Marshall says that the Baghdad
of the Islamdom was comparable to the Constantinople
of Eastern Europe and the metropolises of India
and China
Marshall then proceeds to explore the rise of
Islam and Christianity as frameworks of religious
life. Marshal explains that Islam was not just
the ‘monotheism of the desert’ but
stemmed from historically significant structures
of urban traditions. Though Islam has its share
of mythical and cult influences, it is also sophisticated
enough that it grants freedom from the intricacies
of nature cults. However, like any urban religious
society, Islamic society had the same proportions
of unsophisticated and sophisticated people. Islam
practiced simplicity to the point of austerity
but that simplicity should not be mistaken for
primitiveness. Islam and Christianity have much
in common but as the author states, “the
striking contrast between the ways in which such
common elements are lined up in the two traditions
can bring out the diversity of their meaning in
the two contexts.” The fundamental contrast
which appears is the primacy of the sense of moral
responsibility in Islam. The author warns that
any comparison between the two religions would
result in one emerging as stronger than the other
and an outside alien standard if applied would
miss the strong points of both religions. Marshall
believes that a phenomenological approach is the
answer which he says, “allows at least the
opportunity of genuine appreciation, and will
guard maximally from the pre-commitments of the
inquirer.”
Marshall attempts this approach by declaring
that Christianity demands for ‘personal
responsiveness to redemptive love in a corrupted
world’ and Islam calls for ‘personal
responsibility of moral ordering of the natural
world’. Marshall then moves to explain these
themes from their cosmological influences and
the resulting influences of Law as they differ
in both traditions.
It seems at points during the reading of this
text that the author is bent upon the concept
of equalization. He is desperate to prove that
although the Occident and Islam had culturally
different patterns, these patterns were incredibly
comparable because of general equality of culture
prevailing during that era. This equality he then
attempt to explain as the product of cultural
and knowledge exchange. While one can agree to
these ideas, it does not explain the dominance
of the Islamic culture over the Christian and
other cultures of the world. Any dominance in
the realm of power when such a large empire is
evaluated does not just come from superior armed
forces. Rather it comes from a system of governance
which translates and seeps down to the very core
of regional culture and local cultures. Equality
did not prevail during that era, it can be said
that cultural patterns were highly developed in
the Islamic empire and elsewhere it was the general
economic boom in the world which caused the sophistication
of culture.
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